The project was born on October 31, 2013, when I started to publish on a Tumblr what I call “travel progression” – my rite of passage through each card of the major arcana – where I would hitchhike to see the world. I started with taking pictures of the furniture for sale next to naked people (1st session), promoting the sale of the items, but also an interest in my work. After the unexpected success of these photos, I continued to photograph nudes holding words written on cardboard (2nd session), following the idea of body-object-space. The hitchhiking trip started in April 2014. I travelled through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay, meeting fantastic people and places along the way. The concept of the photos at that time had shifted towards explore the relationship with the name of the subjects in the photographs (3rd session).
In December 2015 I returned to my hometown, where I was brutally beaten by homeless people while doing one of the nude sessions in a square. I suffered severe fractures in the buccal region and after major surgery I spent months recovering, relearning how to eat and talk. So, in April 2016 I decided to live in Chile, where I had stayed a year before the incident. The project has since been in hibernation.
That said, I will now explain to you how “travel progression” works:
Daytime arc – from right to left (conscious pathway)
Night-time arc – from left to right (unconscious pathway)
The story I have just told refers to the daytime arc – I went from The Magician to the Wheel of Fortune. The most interesting thing about all this was the point where I stopped – Strength. The beginning of the path to the unconscious, the way down to hell – I have been stuck between this and The Hanged Man for the last 6 years.
Finally, it’s time for the project to resurface, new nude photos to come (4th session) and to remind those who already know about the project as well as present it to those who want to join, I will go over each point of the trip and repost the photos of the nudes one by one.
Follow the trajectory here, welcome to A Viagem do Herói.